Today was the last full day of our Virgin Voyages cruise on the Scarlet Lady, and was a lazy sea day for us aboard. While we normally love sea days, as. Bimini is only 50 miles or so from our home port of Miami, the ship sailed at a snail’s pace most of the day, no doubt conserving fuel, but in so doing diminished any breeze from cooling off the decks on this ultra hot summer day.
We stayed indoors most of the day, as even our covered balcony and the Dock aft sunbathing area with umbrella was stifling hot. I guess that’s why we don’t normally cruise in the summer, except to somewhere cooler like Norway last summer and Alaska next month; our “Caribbean” a way from the heat!😀
We had a late brunch this morning at Razzle Dazzle restaurant. Razzle Dazzle is noted as being a vegetarian-type venue, however they actually have two menus: A “NICE menu” featuring vegetarian type items, and a “NAUGHTY menu” which features meats and other items. We chose the “NAUGHTY” menu and had a relaxing Brunch at sea.
We met a fun couple sitting next to us, and had a nice chat as we ate. The man was a musician originally from Argentina, but now living in the Miami area, when not traveling. He had been aboard the ship performing with his band for a month, and this was his group’s last day onboard before heading home. The ship allowed him to bring his wife this last week of the sailing, so that worked out great for them, and Virgin Voyages also provided him nice passenger-type accommodations aboard (rather than crew quarters) for his one month contract. He invited us to come to the bands 10:30pm performance in the On The Rock’s Lounge that night, near the large central staircase; i.e. the lobby area.
We would later after dinner go to see Xperimento perform, and even chatted with them a bit in between one of their sets. More further down below.
After brunch we used the better part of the afternoon exploring the rest of the ship. We had been so busy since we boarded, we really only went to the places on our list; i.e. restaurants, RED show lounge, a couple bars, pizza and ice cream parlor, the DOCK area in the back of the ship etc . . ., and we wanted to see some of the other areas as well.
We passed thru the games room area, and then noticed a lady painting on a large wall mural. It turns out that was part of a scavenger hunt aboard, and painting a small section of the mural was one of the quests.
We also passed by some of the smaller living-room-like areas scattered all over the ship; which seemed empty at times even with a full passenger load on this last day of the cruise.
In the late afternoon we packed up our suitcases for debarkation in the morning. Debarkation is never fun on any cruise ship, but at least Virgin allows you to select a time, and we picked 10am, although you can actually depart your room as late at 10:30am, a real novelty on Virgin Voyages compared to most cruises that have you departing by 8:30am or so.
Looking back at this cruise; what did we miss doing? Lots of things, but only due to lack of time. But the good news is we are sailing an 8 night cruise on the sister ship Lady Valiant, so we look forward to some of these things on our next Virgin Voyage:
- The ship’s arcade! This was complimentary and offered all kinds of retro full-size arcade games such as Pac Man!
- The Karaoke room. This also was complimentary and there were five private rooms available (just need a reservation) to use. This would be a blast with a small group!
- Voyage Vinyl: the shipboard vinyl (retro LP) store. We had a small collection of LP’s the ship provided for our use aboard, but you can buy more LP classics here, as well as listen to different current and classic hits at the individual listening stations there.
- We didn’t play the shipboard provided Spice Girls or other LPs in our room, but it would be nice browse thru Voyage Vinyl and area look at the retro selection they have. Alternatively next time we can bring aboard from home our Grease LP we still have!🤣
- The gym or B-Complex as Virgin calls it . We got our exercise walking around the ship and ports, so we didn’t even stop by to have a look in the huge gym area. The B-Complex gym is conveniently located near the smaller outdoor Wellness Pool and and the Gym and Tonic Pool Bar just to tempt you away from your workout!😀
Gym and Tonic Pool Bar.
- Nor the Redemption Spa. We’re not spa type people; i.e. massage etc, although I told DOS some day I’d be willing to try the seaweed wrap, which he always scoffs and says “Any weight you lose you’ll gain right back when you have water or beer! ” LOL! 🤣 Probably true but I’d try it sometime for fun. We do like the thermal (thallosoperathy-type) pools many ships have, but we didn’t utilize the spa area so I can’t comment on that on this ship.
- Nor the Casino, Squid Ink (the tattoo parlor), or even Sips, the Champagne bar. Not that we have any interest in the first two venues, and we had enough free Champagne elsewhere on the ship this cruise, so no need to chill out with more bubbles, though it looked like a nice lounge for a drink.
- Using the Richard’s Rooftop area on deck 15. This was a private area for Rock Star (suite) guests, and we only went here for a few moments on the last day shortly before dinner to see what it was like, so we would know for a future cruise.
- Richard’s Rooftop was probably our biggest regret for not using as it was a Rock Star (suite guests) perk that unfortunately we didn’t have time to utilize on this short cruise. On our 8 night cruise in January, we have 3 full sea days, so hopefully we can use Richard’s Rooftop more on that Caribbean voyage, as we have the same type Brilliance Suite reserved as this cruise.
Richard’s Rooftop was a sizable private area in the very front of the ship with lots of complimentary lounge chairs and sofa-like day beds, as well as a (non-complimentary) bar area. As this was a short cruise (and hot) we didn’t utilize this nice area at all even though they had a couple hot tubs available (actually I don’t know if these were even hot tubs since it was already so hot! and we didn’t use them.)
Richard’s Rooftop also had an outdoor bar, which was closing when we walked thru around 7pm. They do offer a happy hour from 5 – 6pm daily, with complimentary Champagne, which we did not attend on this voyage, but we had enough Champagne upon embarkation and Sail-Away to last us this trip. Hopefully will be able to use Richards Rooftop on our next Virgin Voyage in January, when it’s not as hot!
We only saw one other couple up in Richard’s Rooftop around 7pm, so we chatted with them a while, took a couple sunset photos, and then headed downstairs for dinner.
As we walked to dinner, we walked past the main pool and deck, which was virtually empty at 7:30pm, unlike the rest of the cruise when it was jam packed. Wow, maybe during dinner time the last day is a good time to use the pool if you want it more or less to yourself!
For dinner our last night, we went to Extra Virgin, a fantastic Italian Restaurant. I think as far as food goes I would give Extra Virgin and Pink Agave the tops as our favorites aboard, while atmosphere I would also rate Extra Virgin and The Wake as tops for us.
We had a delicious and leisurely last meal, and before we left, but who should appear? Why the 5 ladies we met the first night before the cruise at the Hyatt Regency! Wow it must have been fate – the first people we met from the cruise and then again on the last night of the cruise! They had a wonderful time and it was so good to seem them one last time. We had our photo taken with them before wishing them safe travels home.
To top off our night, we changed into shorts and placed our suitcases out for pickup shortly before the 10:30pm deadline. We must have been the last people to do so as ours were the only ones left in the hall! Fortunately we saw our cabin attendant collecting them almost as soon as we put our suitcase outside.
Finally to cap off the night and a wonderful cruise, we went to see our Argentina friend’s band perform Xperimento perform at On The Rocks Lounge. Xperimento drew a big crowd, and it was a lively last night for everyone!
We chatted with Emiliano and his wife in between sets and they were so glad we came to see them. The Steve’s are here they said!
And as all good things come to an end, the cruise is quickly coming to an end. We headed upstairs to bed around midnight, and glad we don’t have to rush off the ship early in the morning. Our departure time is not until 10am, even time for breakfast in the morning! Good night!